Třinec, Vítkovice, Pardubice and Slavia into the Czech semifinals

HC Oceláři Třinec (1st) v. HC Chemopetrol Litvínov (8th) 4-2
(6:0, 3:2, 3:5, 2:4, 6:1, 4:1)
The President trophy winner Třinec started its series against Litvínov very well, with a victory of 6-0 in the first game. However, Oceláři was in trouble at the beginning of the second game: Litvínov took an early lead by two six minutes into the game. The team suffered the loss of important forward Peter Jánský. With the third Litvínov goal in the making, Jánský was penalized for game misconduct, checking to the head of Varaďa.
The scorer of the second goal in the game was automatically suspended for game 3 and later he also was dealt a financial penalty by his club. This was to be topped by Chemopetrol losing game number two, due to the fact that the team was missing their best goal scorer – Třinec won 3-2.
As Třinec accomplished to win both their home games on the start of the series, Litvínov also reach two victories on their home ground. Both of Litvínov’s victories were quaint: The score of game no.3 was broken on Litvínov’s side by a goal that no one have seen. The game would go on as usual with score 3-3 after a moving of Třinec’s net in 50th minute, if a video-referee didn’t call to the penalty box and alerted the game-referees on the ice of a goal that was acquired by a curdled shot from the blue line before the moving of the Třinec net.
Litvínov had also won game number four by a goal approved by the video-referee. The game-winning goal scored Majdan in the 35th minute. Majdan crashed into Třinec’s goalie Hamerlík and pushed him into the net with the puck. A video-referee confirmed Majdan’s statement that he was cramped into Hamerlík by Třinec’s defender and the goal was scored in accordance with the rules.
No rarity occurred during game no.5 in Třinec, the home team have won it quite easy by another huge victory (6-1), but the last game brought another curiosity: When the score of a game was already intended  -Třinec was leading by 2 in the 58th minute – Martin Růžička was sprinting to the empty Litvínov net with puck on the stick but he was unlawfully attacked and the referees awarded them a technical goal.

Interesting point of the series:
-    A semifinals advancement for Třinec after 8-years long pause
The players from the city of steel advanced into the playoffs after a very long pause. Last time they tried the taste of fights for the finals ticket was the season 2002/2003, when Třinec lost a semifinal series 4-2.

Bílí Tygři Liberec(2nd) v. HC Slavia Prague (7th) 3-4
(4:5, 5:1, 2:5, 3:4, 2:0, 3:2 SO., 3:4 OT)
The series between White Tigers from Liberec and Slavia Prague was the most emotional and the most dramatic of all. An amazing performance proved especially Slavia, that had qualified into the league quarterfinals from the playoffs preliminary round, when the Praguers beat the team of Karlovy Vary 3-2.
A logic orders that after 5-games long marathon of preliminary round they should be more tired than Liberec who had a long pause after the end of the regular season, but Slavia won the series in the overtime of the seventh game, although they were losing in the game by two goals 5 minutes before the end of the third period.
Slavia was worse than its opponent during all the time of the game as well as during the overtime. Liberec was the team who was preparing goal chances, Lukáš Vantuch burned up straight two chances during the overtime. But the only chance of Slavia, in the 74th minute of the overtime, resulted in a series winning goal. What’s its author’s name? Tomáš Svoboda - the man who also equalized the score late in the 59th minute.
But let’s take the series from its start. The Praguers came into the series better and won the first game in Liberec 4-5 after a big turnover from 4-2. One day later, the Liberec players showed up that their psyche wasn’t touched at all and they totally demounted their opponent with a  5-1 win.
The bigger influence on the series progress had an incident in the 48th minute than the fact, that Liberec took the victory. An outright and nerveless game was coming to its end and also the players were just waiting on the final whistle, until Doležal crashed into Liberec’s captian Petr Nedvěd. A knee foul was immediately punished by Podkonický who was defending his teammate in a one-on-one fight with Doležal.
Injured Nedvěd failed to keep his nerves and on the way into the lockers he has threw a bottle with water on the Slavia coach Vladimír Růžička.
The result of an incident was a one game suspension for Doležal – he received two game misconduct penalties in the same game - The first for the knee foul on Nedvěd and in the very next moment the second for the fight with Podkonický – and it automatically results in a one game suspension. Although Liberec was requesting a stricter penalization for Doležal, the disciplinary council had another opinion. But Petr Nedvěd was penalized by a financial fee of 10.000CZK (app. 410€) for his unsportsmanlike behavior.
The next games were touched by this case, the ice of O2 Aréna,  Prague, was filled by emotions. Slavia tackled with the incident in a better way and won both home games. The only surprising fact was, that Nedvěd had skated into the both games, although the Liberec coach Kalous stated that Nedvěd is injured in his knee and it is very unlikely he will be able to play.
Two wins in Prague meant a series-ending opportunity for Slavia in game 5, the Praguers were leading the series 3-1.
This time it was Liberec who proved a good psychical endurance, because the White Tigers won the game after very well defensive work with a shutout (2-0). However, the series score was still adverse for them and they needed to win also game number six to keep chances for the semifinals advancement.
And they did it again! A deathly dramatic game ended in a 2-2 draw, the ten minutes overtime didn’t bring any goals and the game had to come into shootout. The first goal-scorer in this individual-skills part of a game was the Liberec captain Petr Nedvěd in the second series. Because a Liberec goalie Vošvrda caught the next Vondrka’s shootout and Vak added another goal for Liberec, the game victory came for the away team.
Nedvěd was injured again on the start of the sixth game. Jelínek had hit him in the face with the stick during the opening faceoff of the game. Everyone could notice it during the games 6 and 7 – Nedvěd was wearing a big strap on his face. Unfortunately, this attack wasn’t punished by the referees.
Game 7 was described deeply on the start of the story: The fortune was on the side of Praguers and Vladimír Růžička, the Slavia head coach, stated after the game, that their advancement to the league semifinals (the 4th in a row) could be stamped as a sensation.

Interesting point of the series:
-    Slavia won the seventh game, although they were losing by two goals 5 minutes before the end
A great turnover by Slavia was seen in the last game of the series. Really bad playing Praguers were losing by two goals in the 56th minute, but a goal of Tomáš Svoboda brought an overtime. Lot of Liberec’s big chances came in the overtime, but another Svoboda’s goal from the only Slavia chance resulted in Slavia’s advancement into the semifinals.

HC Vítkovice Steel (3rd) v. HC MOUNTFIELD České Budějovice (6th) 4-2
(3:1, 0:5, 3:0, 1:3, 3:2 SO, 2:0)
If the force measuring of Slavia and Liberec was the most dramatic, we can mark the series between Vítkovice and HC Mountfield as the least interesting quarterfinals series. The reason was that the two most defending clubs have met in this quarterfinal round and what’s more, both clubs have passed through an offensive crisis, except in the second game.
A specialty of this series was, that the first two games took a place in České Budějovice, even if the team of Vítkovice finished on the better place in the final standings after regular part of a season. But there was a collision of games number one and two with earlier scheduled tennis event in ČEZ Aréna and the club from the third most-populous Czech city had to found a quick solution that appeared in switching of home teams for the first four games of the series.
In the retrospective, the most crucial for the destiny of the series probably were the games number one and five. When we take into the account a weak productivity of Vítkovice, a victory in the game 1 was very cardinal for the later advancement of Vítkovice into the semifinals. Players from the city of Ostrava took the lead in the series and even they have lost the second game, they could be still calm.
The games number three and four in Ostrava brought lot of tedium and a small amount of nice hockey action. As late as during the second half of game number 5 the spectators had finally seen some good hockey. Although the home team was defeating by a goal twice, they changed up to the higher gear and brought the game into the overtime. But the fact is, that the number of Vítkovice goal chances was so big, that they can win in 60 minutes, but the luck and HC Mountfield goalie Kovář weren’t on the Vítkovice side.
The team of the white-blue Knights finally has reached the third victory in the series in the shootout and two days later, a last revenge in České Budějovice took place. The key to the win of the away team was in really poor play of Č. Budějovice during powerplays (what was the weak part of performance of both teams during all the series), because just in the first period its player had played five powerplays, but didn’t used any.

Interesting points of the series:
-    First goal = game winning goal
In five games from six this rule was valid. The team who opened the score also finally had won the game. The only exception (proving the rule) was game number five. Although Č.Budějovice scored as the first, the game has ended by victory of Vítkovice in the shootout.
-    Three own goals of Vítkovice
Vítkovice scored three-times in their own net. During the fourth game Č. Budějovice had reached a two-goals lead, but any of them was scored by its players. In the second minute an Ostrava-native Kolarz cranked the puck behind the net from corner behind Vítkovice net, but goaltender Málek kicked it into the net: 0-1. The 25th minute brought the second own goal: Ptáček shot the puck from the blue line, Málek made a glove save, but the puck rebounded above his body. Defender Malík would like to put it away by his glove, but unfortunately he bounced the puck from Málek’s shoulder and it felt into the net. Vítkovice scored one goal later but after the final whistle, the score was 1-3. The last own goal came in the next game – another Ptáček’s shot was aiming next to the Málek net, but he made a save anyway, but the puck rebounded ahead of the net. Defender Rehák wasn’t tough enough and couldn’t defend Gulaš who passed the puck on Kašpařík and his puck was rebounded from Vítkovice’s forvard Klimek into the net.

PSG Zlín (4th) v. HC EATON Pardubice (5th) 0-4
(3:4 OT, 2:4, 1:2 SO, 2:6)
Although according to the final standings after the end of regular season this should be the most equal series, it came to an end as the first. Pardubice won both games in Zlín and after that also both home games, but none of games was single-sided.
Game 1 had to went to overtime, although Pardubice took a two goal lead in the start of the second period. For the team of Zlín the individual mistakes by defensemen were crucial. Antonín Bořuta was on guilt of three goals, the fourth goal in the overtime was acquired after Galvas’ fault.
The Head coach of Zlín Zdeněk Venera made a few changes in the team rosters before the second game. Bořuta was displaced as well as injured forward Kubiš was.
But Pardubice took the early lead again. Jan Starý used a powerplay after Kolář’es and Kaberle’s passes in the 3rd minute of a game. After the next seven minutes the difference between both teams was already two-goals big. Even Zlín tried really hard to equalize the score as well as they did one day ago, they failed to and lost the game 2-4.
It must have felt like in a nightmare for  the hockeyists of Zlín in game number three: Pardubice scored the first goal after only a few minutes of a play again. But this time the team from the South-East of Czech Republic tied the score and brought it into overtime, and later also into shootout. Zlín could be really happy from advancement to the shootouts, because it was really good discipline of Zlín in the regular part of a season.
But unfortunately for them, they lost.
Game four was the only game when Zlín had surprised Pardubice with a very good start and by an opening goal. But their joy had not a long duration. Finsterle’s goal was scored in the 16th minute, but in the last minute of the first period, Jan Koukal I had tied the score and a while after the start of the second, Koukal scored the second goal. Zlín tied the game once again, but Somík’s goal from the 35th minute and three another successful shots from the last five minutes of the game was above the forces of the Zlíners.

Interesting points of the series:
-    Collapse of a fan interrupted the game no.1
The first game of the series was interrupted in the 19th minute, when Pardubice was playing a powerplay. A bottle had fallen on the ice – spectators would like to aware of a man who collapsed in the tribunes. The referee immediately interrupted the play and a team doctor of Zlín aided. According to the latest news, the affected man is all right. Doctors stated that the man has troubles with blood pressure.
-    Amazing playoffs winning streak of Pardubice
Pardubice lost the last playoff game during the last year’s quarterfinals. The first game in the series against Třinec ended by Třinec’s victory. From that day, Pardubice won 16 playoffs games in a row! (4-1 v. Třinec QF 2010; 4-0 v. Liberec SF 2010; 4-0 v. Vítkovice F 2010; 4-0 v. Zlín QF 2011). Will they keep their streak also during upcoming semifinals?

Semifinals couples:
Třinec (1st) v. Slavia (7th)
Vítkovice(3rd) v. Pardubice (5th)

Eurohockey.com bids:
Třinec v. Slavia        bid: Třinec
Třinec should be above Slavia’s forces as well as Vítkovice was in the last year’s playoffs. Slavia already has 12 playoffs games in its legs now (5 preliminary playoffs round included), whereas Třinec played from the end of regular season just a half portion of a games.

Vítkovice v. Pardubice    bid: Vítkovice
Pardubice is on a great 16-playoffs-wins streak. For its players is prompting also the last year’s league finals, when Pardubice beat Vítkovice 4-0 and a fact, that in last two years, the results from regular season are also on the side of Pardubice. But we cannot compare the teams from the last season with the current two. Lot of changes in their rosters occurred, and this regular season’s mutual games were really equal, although Pardubice won 3 of 4 (2-1; 4-3; 1-2 SO; 4:0). Every series is coming to an end and it is certain, that during this semifinals series the never-ending winning streak of Pardubice will come to an end and probably, the indweller of the Vítkovice team will lead to the Vítkovice advancement to finals. Indeed Vítkovice has to come out from their dim quarterfinals performances.

 

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